Obamboozlogandizing AstroTurf is the art of of spreading deodorized bullshit, aka, hopium laced KoolAid, to Sheeple, by preaching sanitized nonsense via the media and internet. The goal is to hoodwink said Sheeple, by any means necessary, into believing that whatever claptrap being offered is the fulfillment of an as yet unarticulated dream, satisfying a wish, or need, they may or may not have any idea they had, while doing the opposite, without getting one’s hands dirty.
Of course, this technique is not exactly novel; it is simply an amalgamation of many Sheeple herding tactics from history, gathered under one umbrella, and wielded by Baracko and the Obacolytes. Credit for the biggest block upon which this house of cards, smoke, and mirrors is built goes to Screamin’ Howie Dean, who, but for the shortsightedness of web cowboy Joe Trippi, might well be into his second term right now. You see, Dean Trippi’s shared Achilles heel was their inability to appreciate the vital necessity of The TelePrompTer for pretenditicians seeking higher office. Had Dr. Creeple People had a Trusty TelePrompTer of his very own, chances are the Edvard Munch impression he did would never have happened; and, if it had, he could simply have read a heartfelt, fratboy written, cliche-filled, hackneyed speech by rote the next day and been forgiven by all the teary-eyed bleeding hearts impressed with his Meetup fund raising innovation. Read the rest of this entry »
Sometimes it’s hard to imagine that so many people entrusted to run our country are as dumb as they are. Sometimes it’s harder to imagine that the people entrusted to bring us information about the dumb shit the dummies in charge do in our collective name are even dumber than the dummies they’re reporting on. But, if reading the news reports of the past week can be trusted at all to contain any smidgen of a hint of a scintilla of anything resembling truth, we are being governed by a plethora of Keystone Kop wannabes, and we know that because Spanky and Our Gang, Jr. told us so.
Let’s face it, ya gotta be at least a little stupid to get punked by White House Press Secretary and Tom Arnold/Wally Cox love child look-a-like, Robert Gibbsmeabreak. But, according to Fox News, that’s exactly what happened to the White House press corps Friday. Told ya they were all stupid. The whole lot of ‘em. In fact, not even I could believe they were that dumb, and kinda figured maybe the humorless drones over a Fox were having their idea of fun and yanking everybody’s chain with a belated April Fool’s Day-type prank, but, no, other sources like the Christian Science Monitor, and the Talking Points Memo press conference transcript, also confirmed that the sorry attempt at humor did indeed happen: Read the rest of this entry »
I’ll be the first to admit that I did not come into this blogging business as the most politically astute or learned person on the planet. The idea that I might be is so far from the possibility of reality that the words I just typed hardly belong in the same sentence. I know that. However, watching my hopes for the election of a candidate I thought to be most qualified to “inherit” (I’m beginning to hate that word) the responsibility of guiding the county back on track be bashed, dashed, crashed and gleefully shattered to smithereens by disparate entities on the left and right, seemingly demented in their zeal, has given me an opportunity to learn and grow politically in a way unlikely to have been appreciated before, had it presented itself. And frankly, I’m sick of it.
All. Of. It.
Each news story, op-ed column, Google search, blog post and talking head garbage spew disguised as informed opinion has added another tidbit of information, often counter to the point the happy yakker thought he/she was making, to the tapestry of my understanding of our nation’s political reality. It’s enough to make you puke. Read the rest of this entry »
Maybe because his plans to ravage the Republican party by inflating Rush Limbaugh’s importance only to tear it down are working so well. And make no mistake, these are Barack Obama’s plans.
Anybody who’s been paying the slightest bit of attention to ObamAntics the past couple years knows that calling out the press is one of his favorite past times. He chided Don Imus and called for the schlock jock be fired for his “nappy headed ‘ho’s” characterization of the Rutger’s women’s basketball team. From ABC News, April, 2007:
“I understand MSNBC has suspended Mr. Imus,” Obama told ABC News, “but I would also say that there’s nobody on my staff who would still be working for me if they made a comment like that about anybody of any ethnic group. And I would hope that NBC ends up having that same attitude.”
He reprimanded the Chicago Tribune’s John Kass in March of 2008, for not being properly deferential at any and all times, when Kass confronted The Never To Be Questioned One about his ties to ersatz realtor and convicted felon, Tony Rezko:
“I know that there are those, like John Kass, who would like me to decry Chicago politics more frequently.”
Just the corrupt parts, I said.
“I’ll leave that to his editorial commentary, but I think it’s fair to say that I have conducted myself in my public office with great care and high ethical standards,” he said.
Except for Rezko.
He kicked reporters off his campaign plane after their papers endorsed his rival, John McCain. From the Washington Post, October 2008:
The Washington Times, which has had a reporter traveling with Barack Obama’s campaign for nearly two years, has been kicked off his press plane.
“The decision came just three days after the editorial page endorsed John McCain,” Times editor in chief John Solomon said this morning. “I hope a candidate who says he wants to unite the country isn’t using a litmus test for who can cover him.”
What’s more, the Obama operation has ejected reporters for the New York Post and Dallas Morning News, which have also endorsed McCain. And room was suddenly made for two magazines that have not been traveling with the Democratic nominee, Essence and Ebony.
He even got downright pissy with the White House press corps 2 days after he was inaugurated, for daring to ask him a question amidst all the bootlicking he had come down to the press room to get:
“Ahh, see,” he said, “I came down here to visit. See this is what happens. I can’t end up visiting with you guys and shaking hands if I’m going to get grilled every time I come down here.”
And while Politico and others have shown pretty conclusively that the current “Operation: Get Rush” campaign is coming straight from the West Wing via Rahm Emanuel playing field general to suckophants Paul Begala, James Carville and George Stephanopoulis, to lay the blame at the feet of Rahmbo is to miss the larger point.
Barack Obama himself launched the opening salvo in the Limbaugh-Obama war in January. From the New York Post:
President Obama warned Republicans on Capitol Hill today that they need to quit listening to radio king Rush Limbaugh if they want to get along with Democrats and the new administration.
“You can’t just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done,” he told top GOP leaders, whom he had invited to the White House to discuss his nearly $1 trillion stimulus package.
For some reason, a lot of people seem surprised about the scope of change that President Baracus Hubris Maximus (Hail, Ceasar!) has attempted to bring about so early in his administration. Those budget-mocking magpies, as well as some KoolAid drunk acolytes now screeching, “Whoa, wait a minute!” with stunned disbelief in their eyes in light of some of his more dramatic moves, would be a lot funnier if they weren’t so pathetic. He told you so. Over and over again. Did you think he was kidding? Or, were you lulled into acquiescence by his transparent sleight of hand, “bipartisan” appeasements, obviously designed as diversionary tactics for the easily fooled?
If “grassroots” mandatory volunteerism is not for you, sorry, you just weren’t paying attention. If health care “reform,” not real Universal Health Care, is not okay by your lights, again, you slept through his stump speeches. If you thought he meant to end all wars, or even end the one in Iraq, you just weren’t listening. He really means to change the way “Washington does business” according to his own “post partisan” vision of how Washington’s business should be done, not according to any past model with which any particular group or entity not affiliated with him is comfortable or familiar with. And, he plans to do it by claiming that he has your blessing.
We’re talking Barackism, here, folks. Part Socialism, part Capitalism, part government backed Corporatism, Barackism is an amalgam of ideologies shaped and molded in his image. Fascism? Call it what you like, there’s a little something for everybody to love or hate. Of course, to accomplish his ambitious goals of “mixedincomehousing,” military and charter school supplemented public education, faith-based community service to government, revamped industry, and corporate partnered central banking, among other radical programs that seem to be large parts of Obacracy, you have to throw the baby out with the bathwater and start the world anew.
This will probably piss a lot of people off. Think he cares? Not. Dissent expressed merely represents obstacles to be worked around, not roadblocks likely to derail his plans. Because in every instance where resentment is met, regardless from which quarter it comes, he can always say, “I told you so.” He doesn’t think in terms of Republican and Democrat, you do. Left, right, center, schmenter, he doesn’t care about those labels at all. Progressive, conservative, these are merely conveniently self-applied designations allowing him to craft appropriate methods of pacification.
That’s why the undercarriage of his bus is so well populated with such diverse occupants. All are expendable. You’re either with him, or you’re subject to be run over. No one is guaranteed a seat merely because their self-interests are served by doing his bidding while riding his coattails. Ask Howard Dean. And Pepsi. (see below)
That’s why his campaign was so ruthless, he has a single-minded plan he is determined to execute by any means necessary. Ask Alice Palmer, or Blair Hull. Or Hillary Clinton.
Whether Obacracy is his idea alone, or more likely, an intricate game plan implemented by an as yet unidentified cabal for which he fronts, or, less likely, even assembled, is open to debate. However, there is no question, at least in my mind, that the sweeping “change” program beginning to come into focus, is the same one he’s been touting between administering massive hopium doses all along. Divert attention, hit ‘em where it hurts when they’re not looking, divide and conquer, push the envelope, exploit the system in place until you can change it, tell ‘em what they want to hear while you sugar coat the things they don’t, these are the all too familiar tactics laid out in the opening chapter of the Obacrat playbook. Whether he wrote the book or was hired to sell it, is of absolutely no importance; unless people wake up to what they signed on for when they voted for him, it’s the rule book we’re all going to have to live by for a while. Might as well listen when he drops hints about what’s in it.
“Change” is not, nor can it ever be considered, a lie if you neglect to insist upon specifics. Let’s face it, the ability to hide your agenda in plain sight while you play your cards close to the vest in order to trick sheeple into thinking things not in their best interests are the ones they want most in the world, and, their idea to boot, is a pretty frickin’ neat trick.
Does the public find Spokesmodel-in-Chief, Black Obama, sexy? If you judge by the number of opinion pieces detailing soft-core porn, semi-erotic, reader submitted “dreams” about him, or music videos proclaiming “crushes” on him, you’d probably say “yes.” However, if you Google, “Barack Obama sexy” and carefully read the predictably high number of hits, only to discover that most of them are responses and commentary on the two examples given, you’d have to determine the answer is, “not so much.”
Now, anyone who has spent any amount of time researching the Nations’ Neophyte President knows that for some reason, Google searches always return an incredibly high number of responses favorable to him. Go figure. But, as is often the case, these results can be misleading. If one examines those results carefully, it is possible to find some rather interesting information.
The question of Oboyhe’scute’s “sex appeal” arosearoused came up today from a reader comment on my last post from “Laree” who claimed she didn’t get the attraction after reading Michelle Malkin’s quote from a love-struck Obamite buried in a Peoria Star Journal article about the President’s visit to a Catepillar-sponsored event last Thursday:
“I see him like he’s my own son, and not in a funny way, either,” Dorothy Tisdale, a 73-year-old Peorian, said in reference to President Obama. She was the same woman who, after Obama’s motorcade passed her, said the experience was “better than having sex.”
Though older women, like Golden Girls’ Betty White, and the aging schoolgirls on The View seem to agree that Obutno is sexy, and Arianna Huffington is determined to publish any and every little thing that hints of Obama studliness, the recurring theme of his dubious “sexiness” bears investigation. The earliest example that comes to mind is the “I Got A Crush On Obama” You Tube (Google owned) video. Bear in mind that Google, one of Obama’s largest donors, whose CEO is an Obama advisor, announced its You Tube acquisition October 9, 2006. The Washington Post reported Obama announced his formation of a “presidential exploratory committee” January 17, 2007, with intentions to formally announce his candidacy on February 10 of that year. On May 27, 2007, the Washington Post told us that Howard Dean’s former “all around web guy,” Joe Rospars, ran a staff of 11 out of Barack Obama’s Chicago headquarters.
On Blue State Digital’s OFA website however, they claim that Rospars’ 2004 founded company was hired by the Obama campaign in 2006. But, Business Week says that the company, which has also worked for George Soros, was hired by Team Obama in February of 2007, nine days before Obie launched his campaign. At any rate, on March 5, 2007, the anti-Hillary Clinton, pro-Obama unauthorized, “Hillary 1984” You Tube video mysteriously debuted, accredited only to ParkRidge47, with “I Got A Crush On Obama” following shortly thereafter.
techPresident’s Micah Sifry investigated the mystery of the 1984 You Tube fueled “Barocket” launch, March 19, concluding, along with his blog readers, that the video had to have come from the Obama camp. Sifry, along with the San Francisco Chronicle, linked above, was ultimately proven correct after the Huffington Post outed ParkRidge47 as Phillip de Vellis, an employee of, you guessed it, Blue State Digital. de Vellis came clean in a subsequent HuffPo post, claiming that he made the video in his basement and uploaded it to You Tube without BSD’s knowledge or authorization. Sure. He was fired, and that, as they say, was that.
Except…
In late September, during the general election, an eerily similar event occurred regarding a Palin-bashing video. The Jawa Report exposed Winner and Associates’, Ethan Winner, employee and son of the public relations company founder and Axelrod associate, Charles Winner, as the producer of this video, now removed by You Tube, featuring a voice-over artist often employed by David Axelrod. After the evidence surfaced, Winner, a known Obama supporter, sent an email to the Jawa Report, claiming he made the video on his own, without knowledge or authorization of anybody in his dad’s company, and the distinctive voice-over artist, who had never worked for David Axelrod (how would he know?) was hired by him. Of course.
So, now we go back to “I Got A Crush On Obama,” the first of a series of videos that launched the ObamaLove campaign. Supposedly, yet another independent singer/songwriter/producer was so smitten with political lust that she and her partner hired an actress to lipsync her Obama anthem and post it on the internet for free, not long after the freshman Senator tossed his hat in the ring. Oh. Yeah.
The song was performed by Leah Kauffman, a 21-year-old undergraduate at Temple University in Philadelphia, who wrote the lyrics with a friend, 32-year-old advertising executive Ben Relles, and the music with her producer, Rick Friedrich.
An actress/model named Amber Lee Ettinger then lip-synched the song for the video, shot by filmmakers found on Craigslist two hours before Relles and Ettinger hit New York City one Friday in May to shoot the video on a DV camera.
“Not including the hours we spent working on it, it probably cost a couple thousand dollars,” said Relles, a graduate of the Wharton School of Business, who said he did it for fun, not money, but is also selling “Obamagirl” and “I Got a Crush on Obama” T-shirts.
The “Crush” crew’s Relles asserted that they invested their time and money into the project and posted it on their new You Tube page June 10, 2007, in response to a Hillary Clinton songwriting contest they found on her campaign website. Huh? Like me, but long before me, and without my knowledge until I researched this post, Gregory Chang of Stop Obama, came to the same “Crush crew must be Axelrod astroturf” conclusion I did, for pretty much the same reasons, only he got there in April of last year.
Back to Joe Rospars‘, Obama’s embedded Blue State Digital, Joe Trippi trained, web guru. Rospars’ the guy who commandeered Joe Anthony’s independent MySpace profile. This January 8, 2009, Boston Globe article gives a bit of insight into the incestuous relationship between Joe Trippi and all his computer-geek spawn, including Boston native Jascha Franklin-Hodge of Blue State, and the impact of the exploitation of their talents and techniques upon the Obama campaign and administration, as well as politics of the fuure in general.
While the Obama Machine has denied involvement with “I Got A Crush On Obama,” there’s no doubt they have exploited the viral video to promote his sex appeal to young, female voters. Given Joe Rospars’ involvement and tactics, it would be more of a stretch to believe that “Obama Girl” was a completely independent production than to suspect that Camp O had a hand in it somehow. After all, Blue State Digital says that’s the way you do it:
In many cases, there is an opportunity to use an attention-grabbing tactic (such as an innovative online application or a memorable video) to create an online buzz that has the potential to go viral, bringing people into your organization’s orbit much more quickly and organically than could be achieved via a conventional program. We’ll help you identify and take advantage of these opportunities, so that you can grow more quickly and put your new constituents to use in pursuit of your organizational goals.
On Blue State Digital created mybarackobama.com, now morphed into Organizing for America, you can find other Obama worshippers convinced that not only is he the hottest thing since fire, that heat can make you sexy too. Now, do you see where ObamaLove is better than sex nonsense came from?
The party Howard Doody Dean called “the white party” has just elected their very own black guy, Michael Steele, as Chairman of the Republican National Committee. All four black Republicans are reported to have said, “groovy.” Okay, I made that last part up, there are at least 5 black Republicans. From the Associated Press:
The Republican National Committee has elected former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele the first black Republican National Committee chairman. Steele was the most moderate candidate in the field and was considered an outsider because he’s not an RNC member. He beat back four challengers, including incumbent Mike Duncan, who was forced to withdraw from the field midway through the balloting in the face of a lack of support.
Oh, goody. Maybe one day Asians, Natives, Hispanics and others will get to run for president of stuff, too. Then, if we’re lucky, we can hope for a woman.
Barack Obama has been pimping faith, any faith, for political power since the beginning of his professional career as a community organizer. Early on he made a conscious, callous decision to use the pulpit, any pulpit, to attempt to mobilize people into action. This is not a secret, it has been documented repeatedly, yet it has been marketed as most things Obama have been, it is what it is, but it means anything you want it to.
Until recently, when Barack Obama touted his Muslim family members and growing up in a Muslim country on Al Arabiya TV, associating the word, “Muslim,” or anything that might possibly remotely hint at a relationship of any sort between Obama and anything Islamic, including his given name, was considered a completely out of bounds “smear.” Even when he himself slipped up and referred to his “Muslim faith,” specualtion about the nature of the slip and what it might mean, was treated as being highly offensive and unfair to the “Christian” man. The “Christian” man who, as far as anyone knows, has never been baptized, (if anybody has any evidence showing he has, I’ll apologize) who could divorce himself from his church and “pastor who brought him to Jesus” when it became politically expedient to do so, and has used every one of his rare church visits in the last 2 years of campaigning and being elected to the presidency as a photo-op, skillfully talks the Christian talk without being expected to walk the Christian walk.
“Nowhere is the promise of organizing more apparent than in the traditional black churches. Possessing tremendous financial resources, membership and – most importantly – values and biblical traditions that call for empowerment and liberation, the black church is clearly a slumbering giant in the political and economic landscape of cities like Chicago. A fierce independence among black pastors and a preference for more traditional approaches to social involvement (supporting candidates for office, providing shelters for the homeless) have prevented the black church from bringing its full weight to bear on the political, social and economic arenas of the city.”
Stop the presses! Hold the phone! Batten the hatches! Hold that line! Tote that barge! Lift that b…Okay, I get carried away, sometimes, but this is news! Barack Obama, the man who raised begging to a fine art, and cleverly figured out how hundreds of big donors could give him Googles googols of dollars by pretending to be some of the “millions of little donors” he hit up electronically every five minutes, has actually (I think for the very first time, ever!) sent out an e-mail asking not for money, but…wait for it…love. (insert celestial Hallelujah choir here) Well, not exactly love as you and I know it, but love in the political sense; and not love for him, per se; he wants you to fuck love his buddy, but that’s not the point! The point is, well, he’s not just a clueless political whore…okay, maybe that’s going too far. He is asking regular people for advice on how to do the job they elected (and paid for?) him to do, after all. So says the L.A. Times:
Word has just been received at The Ticket that President-elect Barack Obama sent out an actual e-mail today without asking for more money from tired donors. No, really.
Andrew Malcolm, who wrote the piece, goes on to point out how even some of Obi-WanNaBeKing’s staunchest KoolAid drunk, hopium high thumb suckers are “way over this thing” and that Bill Clinton just asked for money to throw his former buck-dancing shoe shine boy (let Obie and the Obatocrats tell it) the Best Inaugural Wingding For A Black Guy In A Recession Ever. Then, he gets to the juicy part:
Now comes word, via the Swamp, that Obama actually dispatched an electronic missive earlier today praising as “an ideal leader” Virginia’s Gov. Tim Kaine, Obama’s newly named part-time chair of the Democratic National Committee. “Gov. Kaine has seen the power of the 50-state strategy firsthand,” says the president-elect’s message. “And under his leadership, Democrats will continue to organize and compete in every corner of our country”
Then, Obama asks for — wait for it! – not money, but questions from grass-roots Democrats that Tim will answer in a video on the DNC’s website. Amazing!
Did you catch that? The email takes a shot at Howard Dean for no apparent reason. What’s up with that? Is that the biggest “eff ewe” since Blago picked Burris, or what? Talk about a political whore who even stole for a pimp and doesn’t even get a tip on the nightstand… or, however that works…I’m not exactly sure…ahem…anyway, (coughing and moving on)…They admit in the email that Kaine is going to just Bogart Howie’s strategy and kick him straight to the curb and under the bus, and that Timmy is so clueless that he needs advice from cloud-headed, sticky-fingered, one-hand typists.
Freakin’ amazin’.
But, you know, the Love Buddies just might be lookin’ for it in all the wrong places.
The Washington Times has a transcript of the full Dean-dissing email text from the DNC which promises to build on the strategy of He Who Is Barely Mentioned while remaking the party in the Obamacan mold. They also point out that there is a donate button at the bottom, but I guess since it excludes the blinking arrows and flashing lights pointing to it that most Oba-missves have, it qualifies as non-solicitation. Anyway, how long can this guy go on asking for money? Didn’t he already get elected, or did I just dream that? Could it be, dare I say it…is there hope? Nah. But before he asks people for money again, maybe he could get somebody to watch a couple of episodes of My House Is Worth What? before they compose the email. Won’t get him anymore money, but it might make some of the emails he gets back easier to read.
“Don’t let the door hitcha where the good Lord splitcha!” Barack Obama, who thinks he’s already president, (a step down, in my opinion, from his current position, Grand Poohbah of All He Surveys) didn’t even have the decency to say that much publicly to PUMA nemesis Howard Dean’s face. At one of his innumerable mandatory demands for media attention, this time announcing what the world already knew, (like he always does) Tim Kaine as new Democratic National Committee Chair, Camp ObamaWorship made sure former Chair, and architect of the 50 State Strategy Obama stole and molded to his will, was thousands of miles away being…DNC Chair. From Politico:
The conspicuous absence of Howard Dean from Thursday’s press conference announcing Tim Kaine’s appointment as Democratic National Committee chair was no accident, according to Dean loyalists.
Rather, they say, it was a reflection of the lack of respect accorded to the outgoing party chairman by the Obama team.
Despite leading the party in consecutive triumphant election cycles – as well as through off-year races like when Kaine was elected Virginia governor in 2005 – Dean has become all but invisible since Election Day, passed over for the Cabinet position he coveted and apparently not in line for another administration post.
Indeed, when President-elect Barack Obama introduced Kaine at party headquarters Thursday afternoon, Dean was 7,023 miles and seven time zones away, closer to French Polynesia than Washington, doing party grunt work in American Samoa.
In the article largely critical of Obama’s snub, until they get to the contractually obligated part where they have to find somebody to offer an opinion that justifies Obie’s actions, Politico chronicles just how pissed off Dean and his allies are. One of the people they found to make nice was Dean himself, (well, not actually Dean, but a tape of Dean) who, in an MSNBC Hardball interview with the Leg Tingler Who Will Not Run, conducted before Dean was banished to the other side of the world, said he was happy with the job he’d done, Obama was “da bomb,” no hard feelings, blah, blah, blah. But, because it’s hard for even psuedo- compromised journalists (especially a right leaning one writing about the left) to sacrifice every shred of their integrity and dignity under their own byline, Jonathan Martin couldn’t help himself from including this juicy morsel from Dean about Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s defiant appointment of Roland Burris at the very end:
“You gotta hand it to Blagojevich,” said Dean of the embattled Illinois governor’s brazen appointment of Roland Burris to succeed Obama in the Senate. “What a maneuver! What a maneuver! When his back was against the wall he outsmarted a lot of people.”
Et tu, Howie? Looks like more and more Dems are going to sleep at night with visions of hidden knives dancing in their heads.
Can you say, FISA? How soon the blogger bullies of the “progressive left” forget that they are, in the eyes of real politicians, completely expendable. While they like to pretend they, and they alone, are responsible for every Democratic victory since Ned Lamont, the truth is, not. Unlike PUMAs, they keep being surprized at the realization that Democratic “party unity” is the same sort of public relations sales pitch tool as “hope and change,” and that nobody really in charge actually expects anybody to buy that crap, let alone to be held to it as a principle. Maybe now that Joe Lieberman will be allowed to keep his chairmanship of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, as president-elect Barack Obama hoped, (Lieberman was his mentor) they will finally get the message that they simply exist to suck up as they’re told.
Howard Dean gets it. Nobody invested as much of himself and his reputation into getting Barack Obama elected as Dean did, putting his position as chairman of the DeaNC, his Democracy for America, and his 50 state strategy at Camp O’s complete disposal. DFA lobbied hard against FISA, at one point even asking Senator Obama directly to vote against it on their website. Of course, I can’t find that page now, but I remember it well. At any rate, it seems Dean has learned his “Obama is a fair-weather friend” lesson well. From the Huffington Post:
“My point of view is that Barack won,” Dean said. “He can afford to be magnanimous. And if we happen to win both recounts and Georgia, Joe is the 60th vote. And the truth is — and I certainly don’t have to defend Joe Lieberman because, you know, we have an interesting history — but the fact is, he does vote 90 percent of the time with the Democrats. And no, he shouldn’t have said all those things. But why not clean the slate? Why not start all over again? Why not allow him to vote with us on the 90 percent of the stuff? He will be a good vote on climate change — and this matters. He may be a good vote on election reform, which I hope we will get to. So, you know, he may end up – though it is a little against the odds — he may end up being the vote that allows us to conduct business when Mitch McConnell decides we shouldn’t.”
Greg Sargent over on TPM sounds a bit snippy in his description of a conversation he had with Dean:
Howard Dean says that he’s “fine” with the Senate’s decision not to kick Joe Lieberman off the Homeland Security committee and suggested that the Senate had acted in accordance with what Barack Obama wanted.
In a phone interview with me just after the vote concluded, I asked Dean if he thought the Senate should keep Lieberman. He said that the Senate had acted “in the spirit of unification, which is what the President-elect wanted.”
“He called the shots, and that’s fine,” Dean said, in an apparent reference to the tone Obama has tried to set in Washington as he prepares to take power.
Dean also said he understood the natural human desire for “revenge,” a description that will dismay many of Dean’s allies in the liberal blogosphere, who maintain (as do I) that this wasn’t solely about retribution.
Greg and all the other pissed off bloggers don’t understand the lesson Dean has learned so well; Barack Obama doesn’t give a spit what you think, want, or care about. Not only that, Dean knows that as far as Obama’s concerned, anybody who thinks they might be uniquely useful might as well be Kleenex tissue or toilet paper; use it once and throw it away. As Hillary Clinton also learned, you either hop aboard the Obama Express and hold on for dear life, or you stand on the platform and watch the train pass you by. Your choice. But then, TPM knew that, too. Or, should have.
We are a nation of schizophrenics. Not in the clinical sense; in the popular culture definition sense of happily holding dear diametrically opposed views at the same time. We are tolerant bigots who elect a black man president while the majority of black voters vote down a gay rights measure. We support equal rights for all, except when it’s inconvenient. All men are created equally superior to women. We champion religious freedom for those who believe as we do. Those who don’t, have no place at our table. That’s just who we, as a nation, are. Deal with it.
At the forum shown in the following video clip, whenever and wherever it was, a panel of men discuss sexism against women in this year’s presidential election. Seriously. One of them, outgoing DeaNC chairman Howard Dean, makes clear the case that racism trumped sexism in the Democratic primaries, unfairly marginilizing Hillary Clinton, and trvializing the concerns of women who supported her as fervently as black Americans embraced the historic nature of Barack Obama’s candidacy and ultimate election. Not that Dean admits personal culpability, no siree, Bob. Everybody hated his neutrality, according to him. Somehow, the fact that he has been actively involved with Barack Obama since his Democracy for America (formerly Dean for America) tapped him as one of Dean’s Dozen in 2004, and whose 50 state strategy, DFA grassroots mobilization, and internet fundraising model was used to help him get elected to the Senate and the presidency, just didn’t happen to come up.
Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting “Assassinate Obama.” Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.
Incidents around the country referring to President-electBarack Obama are dampening the postelection glow of racial progress and harmony, highlighting the stubborn racism that remains in America.
From California to Maine, police have documented a range of alleged crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to at least one physical attack. Insults and taunts have been delivered by adults, college students and second-graders.
Yet, who can forget the Asheville, North Carolina grade school teacher, Diantha Harris, intimidating children for supporting John McCain?
Then there’s the Sarah Palin thing. Just like nobody but Hillary supporters cared about “Bro’s Before Ho’s” t-shirts, “Sarah Palin is a cunt” t-shirts were perfectly fine with most Democrats, it seems. And it’s okey-dokey to hang Palin in effigy, doing so might raise the ire of some neighbors and other rabid feminists, and eventually garner attention from the authorities, but hang Obama the same way and expect to get arrested, pronto. Everybody knows hanging a black man is worse than hanging a white woman. Sheesh, even the L.A.County Sheriff’s Department spokesman said so:
Whitmore said that potential hate crimes are evaluated on a case-by-case basis. If the same display had been made of a Barack Obama-like doll, for example, authorities would have to evaluate it independently, Whitmore said.
“That adds a whole other social, historical hate aspect to the display, and that is embedded in the consciousness of the country,” he said, adding he’s not sure whether it would be a hate crime. “It would be ill-advised of anybody to speculate on that.”
Yep, we like our prejucices, and do not believe for a minute that whichever one we like the most is nearly as bad as the one you prefer. Let’s face it, the only use we have for “honest” discussions about various forms of “feel good about yourself by putting down others” hate, is when it comes to assigning blame for our problems to somebody else.
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post asking if Howard Dean was soon to become the Democratic Party’s most powerful man, given the fact that he is the architect of the once hated, now-hallowed “50 State Strategy” that many people credit with winning the election for Barack Obama and others. I concluded that since Howard is, by and large, a clueless, Dagwood Bumstead-type, lucky bungler, he would not; rather, that Obama would find him imminently expendable. Seems Howard Has come to the same conclusion. Adam Nagourney of the New York Times writes:
Howard Dean will not seek a second term as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, ending a tenure marked by an aggressive attempt to reshape the mission of the committee – and to court support by the so-called Netroots – but also marked by frequent quarrels with Democratic leaders over his abilities and the direction he was taking the party.
The truth is, nobody much likes Howard. Far from being the well-oiled machine the well-oiled, astroturfing, Obama pr machine promotes, the Democratic Party seems to be a loose coalition of back-biting factions, thugged into submission by Camp O. Though some may claim Obama owes at least a portion of his success to Dean, in reality, Obama basically sucked the juice out of Howard’s brain, took what was useful, and discarded the rest. Dean may have provided the blueprint, but Team Obama built the car Obama drove across the finish line.
Chris Cilliza tells us newly appointed White House Chief of Staff-elect, Rahm Emanuel, hates Dean, and his plan, and has never been shy about colorfully saying so. Paul Begala once said on CNN that Dean’s 50 State Strategy amounted to hiring people to “wander around Utah and Mississippi and pick their nose.” James Carville called Dean’s DNC “Rumsfeldian in its competence,” and called for his resignation. Though she seemed to be an active collaborator with Dean to disenfranchise Florida and Michigan to Obama’s benefit, Donna Brazile and Howie-baby have clashed, too, most notably over the inclusion of gay rights into the DNC’s Affirmative Action platform. Uptight Howard Dean testified in a deposition that sensible shoe-wearing Donna is against it, claiming it was an “affront to the Civil Rights Movement.” Though Brazile claimed to have no interest in being DNC Chairperson in 2004, her name is currently being bandied about as a possible replacement, as are Claire McCaskill, Tim Kaine, Kathleen Sebelius, and Bill Richardson. Given the Obama campaign’s rather complete takeover of the DNC operation, however, whoever gets the job will likely be nothing more than a glorified figurehead.
Not a lot of love going ’round, to put it mildly. But, since Brazile’s vision relative to gay rights most closely resembles Camp Obama’s, and since she was invaluable during his campaign with her “cheerleading disguised as neutrality,” on CNN, and her considerable input as Chair of DNC Voting Rights Institute, I’d say put your money on the “dark horse.”
This is the first record I could find of contact between the man who is soon to be the most powerful man in America and Barack Obama. Yep, if Obama is elected, Howard Dean will become kingmaker, and as usual, he will have bungled his way to “the top.”
When I went looking into the connections between Howard Dean and Barack Obama, I fully expected to find evidence of Dean’s vengegence-fueled, behind-the-scenes machinations driving Barack Obama’s 50-state bus to the White house, with the aid of compliant Netroots mechanics, and I did. What I didn’t expect to find was the degree of Dagwood Bumstead-style, hapless bungling involved.
Don’t get me wrong; I always knew that neither Dean or Obama really had any reason to believe their convergent, novel approaches would work, or that either of them would really have a clue how to govern if their efforts were rewarded. In fact, in two previous “Runnin’ On Theory” and “Runnin’ On Theory: The Beauty Shop Campaign,”posts, I said so. However, it wasn’t until recently, after days of internet surfing, searching and Googling, that I found out just how clueless both men are. Especially Howard Dean.
The story of Dean’s unsuccessful presidential bid, as well as his innovative fundraising and grassroots campaigning, has been chronicled to death. So has his now famous feud with the more “centrist” factions of the Democratic party. What’s not been so well chronicled is the fact that Dean calls himself a “centrist,” and he lucked into the internet innovation that propelled him to the forefront of a contest he never expected to win. And while Dean may appear to have hand-picked Obama to be the vehicle of his revenge, it’s just as true, if not moreso, that Obama’s camp used Dean’s blind spot to hijack the party.
Dean’s Dean For America campaign organization which later morphed into Democracy For America, a grassroots coalition which tapped Barack Obama as one of Dean’s Dozen almost as soon as it transitioned after he dropped out of the presidential race in 2004, embraced the internet early. From a website called Lessig, July 14, 2003:
Hello from the Dean for America campaign. Governor Howard Dean will be posting later today, here and at the official campaign blog, Blog for America. It’s our policy that whenever Governor Dean posts anywhere on the Internet, his posts will also be crossposted to our site.
Lawrence Lessig is still involved in internet politics, recently spearheading a “bi-partisan” letter-writing campaign urging debate format reform, as well as an earlier, similar “bi-partisan” effort requesting that the DeaNC make debate footage free. Barack Obama also wrote a separate letter of his own. The cast of internet characters in both instances overlaps quite a bit.
Though Dean has been quoted as advocating for “the Democratic wing of the Democratic party,” decrying what he perceived to be the rightward shift in ideology, in this interview with Mother Jones, October, 2004, Dean, promoting his just completed book, “You Have The Power: How To Take Back Our Country And Restore Democracy In America,” said this:
MJ.com: In the book, you say your positions haven’t changed much from when you were a delegate for Jimmy Carter, but that the party has shifted to the right around you.
HD: It’s true. And the remarkable shift didn’t really occur to me until after I ran for president, because in Vermont I was very much a centrist. I mean, my positions on gun control are probably a little more conservative than most people in the Democratic Party, although I did support the assault-weapons ban and all that. But my position on the death penalty is disturbing to some of my liberal friends, because I do support it in a few instances. I balanced twelve consecutive budgets. And yet, I was the most liberal guy out there other than the three candidates who really didn’t have a chance at winning! Well, that’s ridiculous. What happened to the spectrum of opinion in the Democratic Party? If I’m the most liberal guy and I’m in the center, that means the entire party is moving to the right — except for those who supported me.
Since that makes no sense to me, it seems that Dean was merely attempting to justify his anger at the “centrists” who mocked him, and in his mind, caused him to lose. If he was indeed, a “centrist” and had won, it’s likely he would have embraced the political shift as natural evolution. Yet, it was those old school “centrists” who weren’t yet sold on his theory with whom he had a beef. In the same article, Dean once again sang the praises of the young Illinois state senator, whom he had earlier endorsed, who was running for the national office he now holds, and for whom Dean was campaigning at that time.
MJ.com: Who else have you supported?
HD: Barack Obama was an early one, because a lot of our people in the Illinois primary were working for him at the same time they were working for me. So we kind of discovered Barack before he was Barack. (laughs)
Since by this point, Dean was stumping for Kerry and the only thing Obama had done of note was speak at the convention, one wonders if Dean was responsible for the Kerry/Obama hook-up.
Howard Dean’s presidential campaign was notable for it’s fundraising and internet usage, though there was no real reason to expect any of them to work. I found an interactive Howard Dean For Iowa game, and a Dean For America fundraising bat. However, by all accounts, it was stumbling upon Meetup.com that made the difference. According to Joe Trippi, Dean’s former campaign manager, it was all an accident.
The Dean movement was another beast entirely. According to the conventional wisdom, it managed to raise both far more money and far more enthusiasm than its rivals because it used the Internet. In The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, his bombastic but instructive memoir, Dean’s campaign manager, Joe Trippi, stands that formula on its head. “We were not using the Internet,” he writes. “It was using us.”
He has a point. An election professional who entered presidential politics working for Ted Kennedy in 1980, Trippi had also toiled for several tech companies during the Clinton years. With one foot in the political world and the other in cyberspace, he didn’t invent his candidate’s Internet offensive so much as he discovered and magnified it. Every political junkie knows that Trippi and Dean built their movement by embracing Meetup.com, a company that arranges get-togethers for people who share a common interest–anyone from disgruntled Scientologists to fans of Angelina Jolie. What isn’t as widely appreciated is that Dean’s supporters were already using Meetup.com to find each other before the campaign even knew the service existed.
Indeed, when Trippi first saw the site, “the first thing I noticed was that Howard Dean–dead last among the Democratic candidates in almost every other meaningful measurement–was actually leading in this one category, the number of his supporters who wanted to meet up.” He added a link to Meetup.com from the campaign Web site, and with that small piece of HTML code the number of Dean backers in the system suddenly leaped from 432 to 2,700. “For months,” Trippi recalls, “Meetup.com would run its own parallel campaign, the number of people meeting up growing from that initial 432 to more than 190,000. Eventually, we’d even have to create our own, specialized version of Meetup–the GetLocal tools, which would grow to 170,000 people on its own.” When Trippi persuaded Dean to attend a meetup himself during a stop in Manhattan, the number of fans planning to attend started to multiply; he ended up speaking to 500 people in a fully packed hall, with another 300 or 400 waiting outside.
Trippi also has other insights into the Dean phenomenon. In this July 2004 MSNBC piece, Trippi alleges that it was not Dean’s famous scream, nor his centrist enemies that did him in, it was Howard himself. In quotes from his book, “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” Trippi claims to have known Dean was doomed in Iowa. He also says that Howard Dean knew it, too. One of the many mistakes Dean made, besides barging uninvited into a Martin Luther King celebration, and being thrown out, was to refuse to release his medical records, undermining his claims of a new kind of transparent politics. After debating the point with his staff one night in December of 2003, Dean once again refuses, effectively sealing his ultimate doom, and after retreating to a quit corner to confer with Trippi, makes this confession:
“This. I never thought it would go this far. I was going to raise my profile, raise health care as an issue, shake up the Democratic Party. Help change the country. But I never thought this would happen. Don’t you understand?” He turns and faces me. “I never thought I could actually win. I wanted to . . . but I never really thought it could happen.”
This was not to be the last time Dean underestimated himself and his strategy. In an October, 2006 article, when it looked like Dean’s strategy would lead to unprecedented Democratic election success, Dean seemed shocked:
“I didn’t expect much to come of this strategy for four or even six years,” Dean told TIME.
Neither did anyone else. In June of this year, The Huffington Post ran a story detailing the relationship between Obama’s “nomination” (selection) as Democratic presidential nominee and Dean’s 50 state strategy. Referring to Dean’s uphill climb for acceptance within his own party, HuffPo quoted Paul Begala:
“He says it’s a long-term strategy,” said Paul Begala, the longtime Clinton aide and Democratic strategist. “What he has spent it on, apparently, is just hiring a bunch of staff people to wander around Utah and Mississippi and pick their nose.”
If Obama is indeed elected president, Dean will finally be fully vindicated. And while he most assuredly had a hand in Obama’s success, it could be argued that Obama is far more significant to him than he is to Obama. Camp O recognized Dean’s techniques as tools to be used to their benefit. Dean sees Obama’s success as vindication. But once vindicated, instead of being venerated, he is most likely to be relegated to obscurity. For Howard bought the shiny new Obama car without bothering to kick the tires. Obama has no intention of sharing the spotlight, in fact, he is not at all the “breath of fresh air” Dean initially presumed him to be. Obama/Axelrod and Co. have a far different, not so innocent agenda for which Dean provided the road map they’ve used to pursue it. And while Obama’s success may vindicate the strategy, the O Team is not likely to allow it to elevate the man.
This time, Dean may have convinced himself he could win, and this time, again, he’ll be wrong.
Next up: Howard, Barack and the Bad Boyz of the Blogosphere
Even John Grisham would have a hard time selling the events of the 2008 Democratic election as a novel, but if anybody could, it would probably be him. Lord knows, he’d have a lot to work with. Think about it, a political thriller about an African American candidate coming up out of nowhere, with the mega-buck backing of unknown benefactors hidden by the illusion of unprecedented internet support, to secure the nomination even though he was resoundingly rejected by more than half of his party. Wow! Add the element of a shady Chicago cabal of disparate entities hellbent on remaking the American government and moving the seat of power from Washington D.C. to their home city, through the restructuring of the banking industry, bringing down the global economy in the process. Exploiting a rift in the party, a coup of sorts could be executed, resulting in the overthrow of the party’s ruling family with help from the candidate vanquished early in the last election. Throw in a little organized crime, a few ‘60’s radicals, some local machine politics and the greed and corruption of a major political party, and you’ve got a best-seller on your hands. Wrap the whole thing around a civil court case, and let Mr. Grisham loose. The fictional consequences would present no real-life repercussions and it would be a whole lot more entertaining than what we’re experiencing now.
Who might the cast of characters in this fictional drama be?
Barack Obama – Charismatic, up-and-coming, Harvard educated, junior senator from Illinois; this character would overwhelmingly appeal to the under-represented black community, who could then easily be manipulated into supporting “one of their own.” Hiding a radical socialist agenda under a glib persona, he would be slickly packaged and sold as a messianic redeemer of the underclasses. Coupled with the support of the far-left academic intellectual community, the appearance of a “base” could be built, allowing the candidate to be skillfully marketed, through the use of the internet. Preaching a “non-partisan” platform, unlimited corporate funding could then be funneled to the candidate’s campaign under the guise of massive small donor, across-the-board, grassroots support.
Michelle Obama – First Lady wannabe wife of the candidate, more radical than even her husband, this politically ambitious mother of two, often mistaken as the power-behind-the-throne, relishes the opportunity to further her extremist ideas that her husband’s candidacy presents, though less successful at masking them than he. Fashioning herself a modern-day Jacqueline Kennedy, she would become as well known for her more than occasional public lapses into radicalism as for her sense of style.
David Axelrod – Well-known political kingmaker, the reigning “king of Astroturfing” as he is known, this PR man extraordinaire would spectacularly succeed in his effort to “make a president” out of whole cloth. Known for shaping public opinion by creating the illusion of grassroot support (astroturfing) for his public- and private-sector clients through his two separate firms, Axelrod would plot the course of the candidate’s campaign, writing his TelePrompTer-read speeches, designing campaign strategy exploiting loopholes in existing party rules, and creating a Beatlemania-like atmosphere through the use of artfully stage-managed public appearances. Staying primarily in the background, Axelrod would only appear publicly to explain what Obama really meant (WORM) in order to extinguish one of numerous fires inevitably resulting from trying to pull off the daunting prospect of deluding the country and the world.
William Ayers – unrepentant ’60’s radical bomber turned respected university professor, the combination terrorist/academic/fat cat provides a bridge to the candidates multiple bases of support. Hiding his unreleased radicalism in plain sight, this son of privilege and original architect of the grand scheme to overthrow the government provides entree into the right circles for his hand-picked Manchurian candidate. He also ghost-writes the candidate’s bestselling first memoir which later serves as the basis for the candidate’s legitimacy.
Bernadine/Bernadette Dorhn – even more radical wife of subversive Ayers, this frustrated still mad bomber serves as marriage broker for the candidate by introducing him to her law firm protege before re-entering academia.
Jamie Dimon – CEO JP Morgan Chase, member of candidate’s finance committee, said to be on the short list for Treasury Secretary in candidate’s administration, Dimon turns public humiliation for being unceremoniously dumped by his mentor at Citigroup into a triumph of revenge by heading up Chicago’s BankOne through a merger with JPM after a sixteen month layoff to plot and sulk. The resulting pissing contest between the two firms leads to Dimon’s apparent victory in the market restructuring game.
This motley crew of characters, plotting to move the government’s base of operations to Chicago, could consolidate their political and financial power once Wall Street and the global market has been destroyed, and their candidate has been elected. Though I’m not at all knowledgeable about economics, maybe a Dow Jones/Chicago Mercantile Exchange power shift might be an interesting plot twist.
In conjunction with partner, Brave New Pac, which shares office space with Brave New Foundation, an organization that lists Acorn, Code Pink,and DFA among others on their partners page, and Brave New Films, DFA has shown how low they will go to with this, the second of two attack ads so far. The Brave New folks, on the other hand, have loads of attack ads of their own on their webpages. This is the first:
Two liberal political action committees are making an issue of John McCain’s past bouts with skin cancer in a television commercial that features his facial scar and demands that the Republican presidential nominee release his medical records to the public.
The 30-second ad, so far airing for $50,000 only on MSNBC, is paid for by Brave New PAC and Democracy for America, a political group headed by James Dean, the brother of Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean.
Hey, Howie, here’s a thought. Why not spend some dough promoting your guy instead of ripping the other guy? But then, there’s not enough time or money in the world to make that work, is there, Howard?
Last night, I put up a post about outside groups doing ads against John McCain on behalf of Barack Obama. To be sure, one of the groups involved in the pro-Obama push, Democracy For America, is not an “outside” group at all. Founded by Howard Dean almost immediately after his famous scream ended his presidential hopes, it is currently chaired by his brother, and also tagged Barack Obama as one of the first of Dean’s Dozen politicians to watch. That’s about as “inside” as you can get.
The American Issues Project was founded to champion the conservative values that have made the United States of America a blessed nation: smaller government, a strong and ready national defense, lower taxes, and a government that encourages entrepreneurship and new job creation in America. We also know how critical it is for America to win the war against the radical Islamic extremists abroad so we do not have to fight them here on American soil.
“Do You Know Enough To Elect Barack Obama?” seems to be the group’s first effort. Not so for the second, more enigmatic entity with a provocative video. This one is not even technically an “ad,” it’s more of a “viral video” posted on You Tube and the creator’s website. “weneedmccain” says this, in his You Tube profile:
Dedicated to promoting the McCain/Palin 08 Campaign and exercising my freedom of speech to speak my mind over matters critical to the future of this nation.
“Dear Mr. Obama: Who Are You?” is his latest video, preceded by “Dear Mr. Obama: Economics 101″ and the first, entitled simply, “Dear Mr. Obama.” Though not much is known about the videos’ producer, a Google search of “weneedmccain” does lead one to some info, however. techPresident.com’s, Micah L. Sifry, whoever he is, appears to have tried to dig up something on whoever “weneedmccain” is, with mixed results.
“Dear Mr. Obama” was posted on YouTube by someone using the handle “weneedmccain.” When I emailed that person asking for information about the making of the video, I got this reply:
“I wish I could currently spend some time with you, but this can’t be about me right now. Too much going on.
I may be doing an interview with the soldier, who he is, what he believes, some Iraq stories and his parents views in the near future.”
More e-mail correspondence gave techPresident the filmmaker’s name: Michael Brown. His piece is worth a read, but does not defeinitively answer the questions, “who is Michael Brown? who does he work for? Is he a Mccain campaign GOP sanctioned operative, or a staunch Republican with video studio access and time on his hands?” techPresident has a follow-up article on the subject, suspiciously dated the same day as his first, which seems to lead Sifry, after a phone conversation with “Michael Brown” to the gut-feeling conclusion that the video is voter-generated.
Whoever produced and distributed these ads, here they are:
Every time Hillary Clinton makes an appearance on behalf of Barack Obama, she makes him look bad. She doesn’t do it on purpose. It’s not even her fault; she says and does all the right things, with much more sincerity evident in her demeanor than one might imagine possible. The problem for Barack is, she just looks so damned impressively presidential doing it.
Every time she offers a suggestion about how a Democratic presidential candidate should handle an issue, it highlights another Obama deficiency. Those rabidly suffering wretches infected with virulent cases of Clinton Derangement Syndrome will, of course, suggest that she’s doing it on purpose, just to make Obama look bad. Once again, the Obama Delusionally Faithful give their Messiah way too much credit.
Hillary Clinton is the superior candidate. To Barack Obama. To John McCain. To Bill Clinton. That’s what her supporters saw, and what made us vote for her. That’s what made the sexism and downright mysogyny directed at her so infuriating. That’s what made the bogus racial exploitation by her opponent, with the blessings of the greedy, misguided Democratic leadership, so egregious.
While Obama flounders in the waters of his own political undoing, further fouling his prospects for rescue by pissing in the pool, he might want to consider that deploying Hillary Clinton to do his dirty work is like asking someone to throw you a cement lifeline. Even a sincere desire to fulfill your request puts you down.
Hillary’s GMA interview this morning was bittersweet. She looked relaxed and comfortable, sounded poised and composed, and, as always, had a firm grasp of the issues. She handled the questions easily, even the attempted “gotcha” ones about Sarah Palin and Joe Biden. She expressed her disappointment with the outcome of the primaries while imploring her supporters to vote Democratic. She said she was excited to work for an Obama/Biden ticket, and in the process of doing her very best to make them both look good, made them both look pitiful.
The DeaNC, Obama, Biden, Pelosi, et al, should have remembered something I’m sure Donna Brazile’s mama taught her:
Be careful what you ask for, you just might get stuck with it.
Democracy for America is our nation’s largest progressive political action community. With over 725,000 members nationwide, DFA is a grassroots powerhouse working to change our country and the Democratic Party from the bottom-up. We provide campaign training, organizing resources, and media exposure so our members have the power to support progressive issues and candidates up and down the ballot. Join us in the fight to take our country back!
an organization, now chaired by his brother, James, in conjunction with Brave New Pac, has a new Swift Boat-style ad aimed at John McCain. The ad features former Navy Midshipman Philip Butler, who was imprisoned with McCain, claiming that McCain’s “volatile” temper makes him “unfit to lead.” DFA is already planning for a second ad:
Thanks to your support, our ad featuring former POW Dr. Phillip Butler is already making a splash and exposing John McCain as “unfit to lead.”
This is just the beginning of our aggressive, hard-hitting ad campaign to expose the real McCain. It’s time to take it to the next level.
For our next ad, we want to hear your ideas. DFA has always believed in the power of the grassroots over Beltway consultants. We need to continue unmasking the real McCain. The ad should be aggressive, creative and truthful.
Fox News reports that the new “527’s are okey-dokey” attitude of the Obama camp seems to be encouraging other outside groups to jump into the fray:
The Service Employees International Union, a labor group backing Obama, launched its own ad campaign Sunday, announcing a $2 million ad buy in targeted markets in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New Mexico, Wisconsin and Iowa.
The ad, titled Family, features a mother talking about the strain of trying to provide for her family in an economy defined by higher costs, lower wages and lost jobs, and draws distinctions between Obama and McCain on their approach to the economy.
Marc Ambinder reported on Camp O’s new thinking in The Atlantic on September 9:
The upshot: Obama’s campaign will no longer object to independent efforts that hammer John McCain, just as, in their mind, the McCain campaign has not objected to those efforts targeted at Obama. “I assume with their 527s stirring, some [Democratic] ones will as well,” another senior campaign official said.
Jim Dean is the current Chair of Democracy for America (DFA). As DFA’s key spokesperson and fundraiser, Jim keeps DFA in the national spotlight. Jim brings DFA’s mission across the country to all 50 states. He meets with candidates, organizers, party leaders and activists, inspiring everyone to get involved and take back our country. Jim has been involved with DFA since our founding in 2004. He has a long history of political involvement and was a key fundraiser for his brother, Howard’s campaigns for President, Governor and Lt. Governor.
Governor Howard Dean, Founder
Governor Howard Dean founded Democracy for America in 2004 to build on the grassroots momentum for reform that his bid for the presidency sparked. The movement propelled DFA into a successful national organization committed to the “50 State Strategy.”
In early 2005, DFA ran a people-powered campaign to elect Governor Dean to chair the Democratic National Committee. Democrats nationwide badly wanted reform and found the answer in Dean. In February 2005 Governor Dean resigned from the leadership of DFA to take his new post as chair of the Democratic National Committee.
One of Democracy of America’s first acts was to name Barack Obama one of the newly initiated Dean’s Dozen politicians to watch.
By forgetting that if black Democrats are encouraged to vote for Obama on the basis of race, without directly addressing their issues, the tactic could be exploited to encourage women to vote for a woman on the basis of gender.
Little did I know that there was already a hotbed of PUMA activity elsewhere in the blogosphere. Over at Riverdaughter’s “The Confluence” — inspired by the very same RBC ruling — a commenter known as “SM” (now “SM77″) had shouted out that very acronym, and Riverdaughter leapt into action with “The PUMA Unparty.” Soon thereafter, their fellow ‘Conflucian’, Darragh Murphy, would set “PUMA Pac” into motion.
I, too, have written of my memories of PUMA’s birth. On August 24, I wrote a post laying out the reasons I feel Obama to be an illegitimate candidate. A quick trip through my archives or through the archives of any number of Just Say No Deal or NoBama Network will tell the same story through different lenses. In the face of such unanimity of opinion, its hard to imagine a compelling counter-argument from the DeaNC. For the record, I do not support the NoBama Network, it seems too much like a Republican plant to me. That being said, the actions of the DeaNC are solely responsible for creating such a rich environment for exploitation by Republicans, if that is indeed the case. If it is not, I humbly apologize.
The fact that the DeaNC created fertile grounds for Republican pickin’s is borne out by the content of the other aforementioned article, this one published in the UK’s Times Online, highlighting the migration of women to Sarah Palin:
Jessica Goral had pretty much made up her mind two weeks ago: she was going to vote for Barack Obama. Then John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running-mate.
“She empowers a lot of women,” said Mrs Goral, a mother of two in Macomb County – a national bellwether in the battleground state of Michigan and an area rich in white, working-class swing voters who will play an important role in deciding the election in November.
edit
If Mr Obama should be in any doubt how gravely the vice-presidential nomination of the Governor of Alaska has imperilled his White House ambitions, then a day spent in Macomb County will make this clear: white women who voted for John Kerry in 2004 are suddenly deserting the Democratic Party.
Another of the original Just Say No Deal websites, HireHeels.com provided the links to these 2 stories in their comments section. Diane Mantavoulos, one of it’s founders, has been one of the most visible faces of the PUMA movement as well as one of it’s hardest workers.
While the DeaNC might want to wish away the evidence of it’s self-inflicted wounds that PUMA represents, the truth is that the PUMA movement only represents the online presence of a national sentiment. No matter what the polls say, there is no doubt within the PUMAsphere that Barack Obama will lose, primarily because so many diverse entities are so fervently dedicated to make it happen. The DeaNC shot itself, the only merciful thing to do is help it die without dignity.
Face it, Barack, you’re toast. Running as a gimmick in Howard Dean’s revenge scheme might have seemed like a good idea in the beginning, but it was always doomed to fail. Sure, it got you through the early primaries and caucuses, but it faded pretty quickly, and by the convention, you were really dragging ass. If it wasn’t for Dean’s maniacally desperate need to prove himself worthy (a nearly impossible task,) along with Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi’s desire to prove themselves relevant (equally undoable) and Donna Brazile’s bet with her BFF, Karl Rove, you never would have even been invited to Denver. To be fair, the self-interests of John Kerry, Ted Kennedy and James Clyburn played a role too, but it wasn’t as significant as even they would like to believe.
All the polls show you spiraling downward and the word on the street is that your fundraising is lagging. Whether the abandonment by the early Republican mischief makers you and Dean so obviously exploited is now playing enough of a major role in your imminent demise to be definitive, and/or other equally devastating miscalculations by you and your crew are to blame, the bottom line is, you’re screwed.
Being black when convenient works to an extent, but it’s not sufficient to win the big game. The truth is, there are people who will vote for you because you’re black and probably an equal number who won’t for the same reason. However, that’s never been the sole reason you can’t win, and the new developments in the contest have nullified any imagined advantage you might have had in that regard.
You’ve been played. See, the “bro’s before ‘ho’s” mentality is wrong on so many levels that if even one of those levels comes into play, you lose. Too bad that now they all are. Hillary beat you, Barack. You, I and everyone else who’s been paying attention knows that. For one thing, there are just more “‘ho’s” than “bro’s.” And to make bad matters worse, at least some of the “‘ho’s” come from the “bro” side. That’s one problem. Another is, McCain, that savvy old pro, along with his team, knows the game, too, and by picking Sarah Palin, he steals some of your “‘ho’s” and gives some of your racist foes a convenient place to park their racism. See, they don’t have to wear the big “R” on their cowboy hats to vote against you. They can plaster the big “F U” of feminist understanding proudly across their chests.
So, yeah, Palin’s a gimmick, too. But unlike you, where a lot of people in your party really, really don’t like you, primarily for the way you’ve played the game, her side sees her as the ace in the hole that trumps you. They love that. And as for those “bro’s” you thought you could count on, some of them are not going to be there for you, either. See, you’re not really there for them and they know that. You put them down, call them “Pookie;” lazy boys who can’t be depended upon to man up to their responsibilities, and believe it or not, a lot of them plain don’t like that. Go figure. Just the fact that you would exploit the “bro” thing subliminally rankles, too, Barack. Black men usually don’t even refer to each other that way. I’ve never heard it, and I’ve been black longer than you. The word is “bruh.” The fact that you and your t-shirt making cronies don’t know that, may seem like a small thing, but it speaks volumes about on whose behalf you put black people down.
Oh, yeah, bruh, you’re gonna lose. And racism nor sexism will be the cause. Those two gimmicks cancel each other out in the long run. The reason you don’t have a prayer is because you and your “sell-out-the-base-for-a-pipe-dream” crew just aren’t as good at the game as the other guys. Clinton offered you the best deal going early on; her running mate. Sure-fire win. No gimmick from the other side plays against that dynamic ticket. But you and your boyz got greedy enough to convince yourselves you were not only better than the other teams you would face, but that you were better than you actually are. That’s clearly delusional thinking on the part of people who can’t even do basic math. “Bro’s” vs. “ho’s?” “Ho’s” win, hands down.
Shoulda thought about that a long time ago, Dr. Deanenstein and Frau Nancy Blucher. You’re the ones who gave the rabid Clinton Derangement Syndrome suffering “Anybody But Hillary” lunatic fringe free reign while you allowed your creation to traipse around the country like a real boy playing dress-up in the Emperor’s see-through suit. Now you want to complain because the McCain camp has given your monster a Lilith-like bride. Ha, ha, again.
Your pathetic little formula was so obvious and easy to copy. It only worked a little bit in the primaries, but you’re too power-lust crazed to realize that once Hillary and Co. realized what you were up to, she cleaned your clock nine ways to Sunday, even with both hands tied behind her back. By you. And your Republican mole, Donna Brazile, who along with her crew, kept the Rove playbook working overtime. You scrambled, thugged and mugged your way across the finish line, barely ahead, dragging your wounded, limping creation behind you and thought you had gotten away clean. What a schmoo.
Oh, yeah, Dr. Deanestein, your little theory worked. Even better than you hoped. That was your undoing. Drunk with the success of the midterm elections in ‘06, you thought you and your guy were ready for the big, “Puttin’ on the Ritz” tour, so you ramped up your plans and rushed off half-cocked, just like you did in your own presidential run. Good plan, lousy execution, Deanenstein trademark.
Your scheme is so transparent, so easy to copy, are you really surprised that an old warhorse like McCain borrowed the formula, Deanenstein? His feminized, Stepford-influenced clone is going to reduce your Emperor Pinocchio to a puddle and walk all over him without even taking off her glasses.
Greta Van Susteren has a question up on her blog, GretaWire, asking if PUMAs are real. Boy, is she getting an ear/eyeful! She also has an accompanying video up of Sarah Palin’s speech with John McCain, but nobody’s paying attention to that. PUMA after PUMA is expressing all the outrage we’ve felt over the way the Democrats have treated us this year. What’s interesting is that while Hillary Clinton’s name comes up, since she bore the brunt of the abuse, it probably is mentioned no more than the names of Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi and Donna Brazile. All the pent-up anger and frustration we, and people like us who didn’t even know they were PUMAs, have been feeling, is pouring out from keyboard after keyboard in an unrelenting deluge.
There is this notion being put forth by some in the media, pushed by the DeaNC and the Obamacrats, no doubt, that the PUMA movement is a myth. Somebody wants people to believe that a few Republicans have been making mischief by infiltrating the Democratic party and agitating the base. Whoever is trying to peddle this poop knows better.
The way the primaries unfolded didn’t sit right with us voters not jumping on the O train, but we gave the Dems the benefit of the doubt. Maybe there was something to this guy we weren’t seeing. But week after week, more and more stink kept rising. The Rules and Bylaws committee was the last straw. See, unlike the Obots, we’re not kids. We see, and we know what we’re looking at. “Rules are rules,” “we all agreed” and all that other parental sounding happy crappy is fine and dandy if you don’t know that “the rules” are always fluid and “we all agreed” not to mention that “we all know” there are “rules around the rules.” We also know fair is fair, and “rules or no rules,” the nomination process between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama was not fair. Two hour private “lunches” at a public meeting on the same day the preferred candidate “sees the light” and dumps his contentious church, for which he is rewarded with delegates he couldn’t possibly have earned, not being on the ballot, don’t exactly inspire confidence. But that’s not the point. We can re-litigate the primaries later, I’m happy to do it. But right now what I want to address is the notion that the DeaNC and the media are surprised that we exist.
We told Howard Dean! He’s the one who sat up in the RBC meeting and called for “party unity” signaling from the jump that we were going to get screwed. We knew that going in, but the blatant, dare I say it, “audacity” of these petty criminals trying to “hoodwink” and “bamboozle” people who wrote the game, in broad daylight, no less, was unbelievably appalling. That was the moment PUMA was born. Party Unity My Ass!
SM77: Our spicy Latina in Florida gave PUMA a name when she said after the RBC hearing in May: Party Unity My Ass!
The sentiment was already there, however. All the PUMA movement needed at that point was a name. And that name went viral. More than one group co-opted it and adapted it to their vision, and while different groups took different approaches, throughout this loose-knit coalition, the underlying mission was the same: screw you back, DNC!
One of the PUMA groups, PUMA Pac, changed the acronym to mean People United Means Action and, in short order, became a registered pac. But they didn’t start that way. The frustrated visitors to their new website wanted to do something so they soon started organizing various missions called “action alerts” One of the first was an e-mail campaign to Howard Dean. On Jun 5, 2008, this call to action was printed:
All Pumas, please send an email to Howard Dean, chair of the Democratic National Committee right now @ howarddean@dnc.org
Tell him that we are Democrats who will not vote for Barack Obama for president. We will not support a “Unity Ticket” with Hillary Clinton as the vice-president. We will not donate one thin dime to the DNC or any of its affiliate organizations until they wake up, listen to the voices of the voters in ALL 50 states, and start distancing themselves from this disastrous nominee.
Subsequent “action alerts” from PUMA Pac and many of the other groups, organizations and websites in, and out, of the Just Say No Deal coalition alerted the heck out of Brazile and Pelosi, too. And if you check with them, they have their own stories of how they came to be and what they’ve done about their anger. So, as you can see, the DeaNC knew about PUMA almost as soon as we did. As well they should. They started it. They started us.
This is the second in a series of posts about the reasons for my disillusionment with the Democratic party and the way this nomination process played out in the words of the people involved. Today, Howard Dean.
Speech to California Democratic party convention, March 15, 2003:
I am Howard Dean and I here to represent the democratic wing of the Democratic Party.
“Not only are we going to New Hampshire …, we’re going to South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico, and we’re going to California and Texas and New York,” he said. “And we’re going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan. And then we’re going to Washington, D.C. To take back the White House. YEAHHHH!!!.”
From Democracy For America on Barack Obama being named one of the initial “Dean’s Dozen” on May 12, 2004:
Several months ago I put out a call to the hundreds of thousands of grassroots activists who had worked on my campaign to run for office themselves. Hundreds of volunteers answered this call. Our new organization – Democracy for America – is dedicated to using its resources to support those candidates in their fight to take our country back from the right-wing conservatives who dominate our government. Today, Democracy for America announces the Dean Dozen – twelve diverse candidates that represent the spirit of grassroots democracy.
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Barack Obama for United States Senate from Illinois. In the race to regain control of the U.S. Senate, Democrats have few better chances to pick up a seat than in Illinois. DFA volunteers all over Illinois helped Obama win his primary, now it’s time to help him win the general. Stay tuned: I will be on the trail with Barack soon. www.obamaforillinois.com
The Internet is the most empowering and democratizing invention since the printing press.”
The Washington Blade reports on March 28, 2008 that in a deposition regarding the case of Donald Hitchcock, a gay man fired from the DNC for poor job performance, Dean blames Donna Brazile for deteriorating relationships with the LGBT community:
Dean said some “influential individuals” within the DNC Black Caucus, such as Donna Brazile, opposed the plan because it was seen as “an affront to the civil rights movement.”
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“I wanted equal representation for gay and lesbian Americans,” he said, “and I wanted to achieve it in a way that wasn’t offensive to the history of the civil rights movement.”
“Well, I think the candidates have got to understand that they have an obligation to our country to unify. Somebody’s going to lose this race with 49.8 percent of the vote. And that person has got to pull their supporters in behind the nominee.
“We are strong enough to struggle, and disagree, be angry, disappointed
and still come together at the end of the day and be united. The reason we
are able to do this is because all of us, together in our passion and our
emotion realize that this race is not about me, it’s not about Hillary
Clinton, Barack Obama, the RBC or the reporters who are here to cover the
event. It’s about restoring our great country.
“If it’s very very close, they [the superdelegates] will do what they want anyway,” said Mr Dean.
“I think the race is going to come down to the perception in the last six or eight races of who the best opponent for McCain will be. I do not think in the long run it will come down to the popular vote or anything else.”
“I’m not sure all of them are Clinton supporters,” he said. “I think some of them are having fun at the Democrats’ expense. I think shouting through somebody’s speech is low-class.”
“If you look at folks of color, even women, they’re more successful in the Democratic Party than they are in the white — excuse me — in the Republican Party.”
“Looking out from this podium tonight, I see this diverse assembly of Democrats as a testament to the strength and unity of our party and the fruition of our 50-state strategy,” the party chairman told the throng as he gaveled the convention to session.
I don’t think we have a unity problem at all. I think there’s a few people who can’t be satisfied, but we’ve got some very happy delegates with our ticket.
You reacted to all of Clinton’s feints and are just lucky she was never allowed to hit back, what with Nancy Pelosi pinning her arms behind her. You fell for McCain’s feints, too, and even let him lull you to sleep before he sucker punched you. Ha, ha. Welcome to combat, brother. Doesn’t do much good to stack the race deck, just to build a house of cards, now does it? This is high-stakes poker, for all the marbles. You blinked. You blew.
Hillary Clinton is winning the presidential race, and she’s not even running! Handcuffed by the DNC and the MSM during the primaries, she still won the popular vote. With both hands tied by her own party she still beat their coddled and cuddled “selectee.” And now, she’s kicking everybody’s butt from the comfort of her living room.
Buried deeply within yet another story about yet another poll showing Obuhbuh tanking, is this little gem:
It’s also worth noting that while Obama leads McCain by three points in the poll, Clinton edges the Republican by six points in a hypothetical match up, 49 to 43 percent. But she remains a polarizing figure: 49 percent say they don’t want to see her as president someday, and 42 percent view her favorably versus 41 percent who see her in a negative light.
So what if she’s polarizing? She’s winning! From a freaking Barcalounger! These two yoohoos have been running like the Dickens against each other for months and neither one of them can beat the chick that’s been chilling with her old man and kid ( when she wasn’t being exploited by the schmoo running in her rightful place. )
Not only that, despite Senator Clinton’s best efforts ( and I mean that sincerely ) Obonehead can’t even convince her supporters, his own flipping party members, that he deserved to win. Because he didn’t.
…Yet perhaps the biggest factor keeping the presidential race close has been Obama’s inability to close the deal with some of Hillary Clinton’s supporters. According to the poll, 52 percent of them say they will vote for Obama, but 21 percent are backing McCain, with an additional 27 percent who are undecided or want to vote for someone else.
What’s more, those who backed Clinton in the primaries — but aren’t supporting Obama right now — tend to view McCain in a better light than Obama and have more confidence in McCain’s ability to be commander-in-chief.
As I have written before, Obama didn’t even win the nomination. Technically, the DNC does not really have a presumptive nominee. And considering all the other info in this MSNBC story, they need to stop pretending that they do.
Overall, Obama holds a three-point lead over McCain, 45-42 percent, which is within the survey’s margin of error. That’s down from Obama’s six-point advantage last month, 47-41 percent.
For some stupid reason, people like Peter D. Hart, the Democratic pollster who, with Republican Neil Newhouse, conducted this poll, keep putting all the onus on Hillary.
For these reasons, Hart believes that Clinton’s speech on the Tuesday night of the Democratic convention will be a significant event. “The Democratic convention is more than a coronation,” he says. “It is an event where the words of Hillary Clinton are probably going to be exceptionally important.”
Hey Clueless, this is NOT Clinton’s mess to fix! The DeanNC picked, pushed and tried to shove his lousy candidate down everybody else’s throat, and if the lousy candidate can’t close the freaking deal, too forking bad! There is one thing the Keystone Kops running things can do to make things right, put it to a vote. Let the convention proceed by the rules and spirit for which it was intended. My girl will beat your guy with both hands tied behind her back. And spot him a 2 month head start. C’mon, I dare you. Ya buncha schmoos.
Barack Obama has sold Howard Dean and the Democratic National Committee the theory that, combined with Dean’s “50 State Strategy“ increased voter participation by African Americans will not only deliver the White House, but will result in significant gains for downticket Dems nationwide. The theory goes that if the large number of currently unregistered, eligible black voters were to be registered, then be lured to the polls to vote for Obama, he’s a shoe-in. The Wilmington Journal reported in their August 7-14 issue,
There are 56 million unregistered voters nationwide, 32 percent of the total eligible voter ranks, the Obama campaign says. Of that number, eight million are black (which is also 32 percent of eligible African-American voters).
“There are a million people who are eligible to vote who aren’t registered in North Carolina,” Howard Dean, chairman of the Democratic National Committee told The Wilmington Journal during his recent stop in Raleigh two weeks ago. “We believe that the vast majority of those voters would vote for Barack Obama if they had the opportunity, and we’ve got to reach every single one of them.
Now, how to find and register these voters requires an ingenious approach. When courting African American voters early in the primary campaign, Hillary Clinton relied on the black church.
Clinton can be seen frequently at Sunday morning worship services in black churches not only in South Carolina, but nationwide.
“If you’ve ever been to a worship service and seen Sen. Clinton there, especially in the African-American churches, outside the fact that she’s a white woman among African-American congregants, you would think that she fits right in. It’s just very natural.”
Perhaps it was Clinton’s ease with black Americans or the perceived automatic advantage from her association with her husband’s legacy that spurred the Obama campaign to think outside the church box. To be sure, Obama has been involved with religious outreach going back to his community organizing days, however there was obviously a need to mine a field he could claim exclusively. Especially since, prior to the South Carolina primary, monolithic black community support of the Illinois Senator was hardly assured.
“I think the world is too large, too huge and the problems too great for someone to come in on the job training. I think because of… her years in the White House, in the Senate, have given her the opportunity to explore and to see what is needed for this country,” said state Rep. Terry Alexander (D-Florence). Alexander is the pastor of Wayside Baptist Church in Florence, SC.
Rev. Barnes believes the decision goes much deeper than race.
“We cannot base our decision on our shared ethnicity, but the experience we have. And while Sen. Obama is very qualified (there’s) the experience that comes with Senator Clinton. She’s the one that’s going to put our country back on track. Raised by a woman, I think a woman can do it.”
Barack Obama’s presidential campaign can honestly be called a Grand Experiment. It’s an experiment that the Democrats are betting will succeed, based largely on the fact that it accounts for Obama’s success in getting elected. To be sure, nobody can seriously claim to be swayed by the candidate’s record of legislative accomplishment, first they’d have to find it. No, it is Obama’s string of victories due primarily to his grassroots organizing efforts that have the party’s heart’s a-twitching like Chris Matthews’ tingly leg. Add Howard Dean’s fifty state strategy to the mix and you have the makings of a beautiful friendship.
Now, four years have passed. And the Democrats have nominated a candidate that seems perfectly equipped to test-drive the party’s 50-state vehicle. Obama has built his candidacy off of the pledge to expand the electoral playing field. Moreover, his campaign has leaned on an ability to drum up both grassroots support and the recruitment of Republicans and independents — two stated objectives of the Dean vision.
On Thursday, Obama symbolically endorsed the DNC’s efforts, declaring that Dean would remain party chairman heading into the general election.
The Obama/Dean association goes back much farther than June of this year, however. In 2004 Howard Dean founded Democracy For America after losing in the presidential primaries that year.
Governor Howard Dean founded Democracy for America in 2004 to build on the grassroots momentum for reform that his bid for the presidency sparked. The movement propelled DFA into a successful national organization committed to the “50 State Strategy.”
Their stated mission on their website is a simple one:
Democracy for America is our nation’s largest progressive political action community. With over 725,000 members nationwide, DFA is a grassroots powerhouse working to change our country and the Democratic Party from the bottom-up. We provide campaign training, organizing resources, and media exposure so our members have the power to support progressive issues and candidates up and down the ballot. Join us in the fight to take our country back!
But a longer statement outlining the group’s mission, dated June 20, 2004, goes into a little more detail:
DFA has a long-term goal that looks past November 2004. This organization will rebuild the Democratic Party from the bottom up — it will take time, but we must start building a base now for the future, just like the Republicans did 40 years ago.
Obamboozlogandizing AstroTurf is the art of of spreading deodorized bullshit, aka, hopium laced KoolAid, to Sheeple, by preaching sanitized nonsense via the media and internet. The goal is to hoodwink said Sheeple, by any means necessary, into believing that whatever claptrap being offered is the fulfillment of an as yet unarticulated dream, satisfying a wish, or need, they may or may not have any idea they had, while doing the opposite, without getting one’s hands dirty.
Sometimes it’s hard to imagine that so many people entrusted to run our country are as dumb as they are. Sometimes it’s harder to imagine that the people entrusted to bring us information about the dumb shit the dummies in charge do in our collective name are even dumber than the dummies they’re reporting on. But, if reading the news reports of the past week can be trusted at all to contain any smidgen of a hint of a scintilla of anything resembling truth, we are being governed by a plethora of Keystone Kop wannabes, and we know that because Spanky and Our Gang, Jr. told us so.
I’ll be the first to admit that I did not come into this blogging business as the most politically astute or learned person on the planet. The idea that I might be is so far from the possibility of reality that the words I just typed hardly belong in the same sentence. I know that. However, watching my hopes for the election of a candidate I thought to be most qualified to “inherit” (I’m beginning to hate that word) the responsibility of guiding the county back on track be bashed, dashed, crashed and gleefully shattered to smithereens by disparate entities on the left and right, seemingly demented in their zeal, has given me an opportunity to learn and grow politically in a way unlikely to have been appreciated before, had it presented itself. And frankly, I’m sick of it.
Why is Barack Obama 
For some reason, a lot of people 
Does the public find Spokesmodel-in-Chief, Black Obama, sexy? If you judge by the number of opinion pieces detailing soft-core porn, semi-erotic, reader submitted “
The party Howard Doody Dean called “
Barack Obama has been pimping faith, any faith, for political power since the beginning of his professional career as a community organizer. Early on he made a conscious, callous decision to use the pulpit, any pulpit, to attempt to mobilize people into action. This is not a secret, it has been documented repeatedly, yet it has been marketed as most things Obama have been, it is what it is, but it means anything you want it to.
Stop the presses! Hold the phone! Batten the hatches! Hold that line! Tote that barge! Lift that b…Okay, I get carried away, sometimes, but this is news! Barack Obama, the man who raised begging to a fine art, and cleverly figured out how hundreds of big donors could give him 
“Don’t let the door hitcha where the good Lord splitcha!” Barack Obama, who 
Jim Dean is the current Chair of Democracy for America (DFA). As DFA’s key spokesperson and fundraiser, Jim keeps DFA in the national spotlight. Jim brings DFA’s mission across the country to all 50 states. He meets with candidates, organizers, party leaders and activists, inspiring everyone to get involved and take back our country. Jim has been involved with DFA since our founding in 2004. He has a long history of political involvement and was a key fundraiser for his brother, Howard’s campaigns for President, Governor and Lt. Governor.
Governor Howard Dean founded Democracy for America in 2004 to build on the grassroots momentum for reform that his bid for the presidency sparked. The movement propelled DFA into a successful national organization committed to the “50 State Strategy.”
